Karel En De Kindermoordenaar (Karel And The Child Murderer) is a 1987 Dutch children's novel by popular author Dolf Verroen. Easily among his darkest works, which is also the reason for its obscurity as, unlike his other books, it was never reprinted.
The story concerns Karel, a young boy who is terribly unhappy with his lot in life. His parents died in a car accident, leaving him to be raised by his neglectfully eccentric aunt Alebes and uncle Pronk, who don't understand why Karel is constantly wallowing in his sorrow. The kid next door, a boy held in such high regard by everyone around him that he is called Engeltje ("little angel"), bullies Karel every chance he gets. Karel can barely perform at school, much to the ire of his teacher, Mr. Olivier, who nonetheless tries to teach him right and get his life back on track. The closest things Karel has to friends are Mr. Bult and Mrs. Droog, who frequently meet together at the cemetery where Karel's parents are buried.
But the news going around as of late among Karel's peers concerns young Brammetje Bogaard, who was found strangled to death in a ditch. Apparently, there's a child murderer going around, and it's got everyone greatly worried. But Karel's got more reason to worry than anyone else when he comes face to face with the strangely well-mannered child murderer himself, who announces to Karel that he's his next target. No matter where Karel goes or how far he runs, the child murderer continues to pop up with nigh-supernatural tenacity, and will stop at nothing until Karel is no more...
Despite its gloomy subject matter, the story is replete with (dark) humor, and reminisces on the nature of death, coping with loss, and what lies beyond.
An unofficial English translation can be found here
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Karel En De Kindermoordenaar provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Karel is on his own dealing with most of his issues throughout the story, whether it's the murderer or Engeltje.
- Big Eater: Aunt Alebes and Engeltje, in addition to the kid Karel meets in the afterlife who gets to eat his fill of candy in Luilekkerland.
- Bittersweet Ending: Karel dies, but is reunited in the afterlife with his parents and they live happily together for eternity.
- Breather Episode: Chapter five, where Karel and Engeltje clean the attic, play dress up, and have a good time of it all. Then Karel heads back to the attic by himself and finds the child murderer waiting for him.
- Cassandra Truth: No one will believe Karel when he claims Engeltje did something bad.
- Deadly Euphemism: When it becomes clear that he cannot escape his death at the hands of the child murderer, Karel explains to other people asking why he's so sad that he's about to "move". Most people do react with understanding, even if they don't realize the deeper implications.
- Death of a Child: A major theme of the book is that children are not exempt from death no matter what.
- Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: The child murderer at one point takes Karel for a friendly stroll through a forest where he killed several other kids.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Karel and Engeltje go clean up the attic in chapter five, and have a grand old time messing around and dressing up in old wedding clothes. It's about the only time they're actually friendly with each other.
- Hard Truth Aesop:
- Children die all the time and even if you don't, you're still gonna die someday. That's perfectly natural and the sooner you accept it, the better.
- If your life is unbearable due to factors beyond your control, you're probably better off dead.
- Hope Spot: When Karel first runs into the child murderer, he's apparently mistaken him for Engeltje and when Karel corrects him, the child murderer leaves him to go kill Engeltje. However, he quickly decides Engeltje is too much trouble and would much rather kill Karel after all.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Everyone who believes that Engeltje is a sweet kid who can do no wrong.
- I'm Having Soul Pains: Whatever body parts Karel has had "cut off" by the child murderer start itching frequently.
- In Which a Trope Is Described: Each chapter begins with a brief, humorous summary like this.
- Mood Whiplash: Used to great effect as the story often skirts the line between dark comedy and genuine horror, especially where the child murderer is concerned; he's prone to casually starting a conversation before letting slip that he's been busy trying to kill a bus-worth of school children.
- Motif: The murderer's scissors appear on the front cover image and on each chapter page. On the latter they're seen cutting apart the first letter of the chapter's description, usually the W for "waarin" ("in which"), which gets progressively more mangled as the story goes on. For the final chapter, the W is reduced to shreds completely.
- Real Dreams are Weirder: Chapter five ends with Karel dreaming about his own wedding. He tries to cut the wedding cake, but the knife turns into scissors, and the groom, the child murderer, steps out of the cake towards him.
- Soul-Cutting Blade: The child murderer uses what appears to be a completely ordinary pair of scissors to apparently slowly cut his victim's souls apart, as they suffer no physical injury whatsoever. When the last piece is gone, the victim dies shortly after.
- Together in Death: Karel and his parents after the former dies.
- Tragic Keepsake: Karel managed to hold on to one of his mother's precious teacups, adorned with flowers and a gold edge, which he often holds while thinking of his parents.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Mr. Bult and Mrs. Droog have some obvious chemistry, but neither party dares say it out loud.
- What You Are in the Dark: At one point, certain that he's going to die anyway, Karel seriously considers throwing Engeltje into the pond and letting him drown when no one's looking. Ultimately he decides against it.
